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Henri Preiss

My practice is inspired by urban architecture and how it unravels layers of Histories. Specifically, I am fascinated by the monumental ideas and concept that underpin the great city structures and the reality of their inherent chaos and decay.
This fundamentally informs the composition of work and how each piece and each element of each piece sits (un)comfortably beside and/or within one another. By examining a very broad framework of art history to identify common elements (motifs, compositions, color schemes and symbolism) that arise time and again over the centuries and throughout seemingly disparate and disconnected cultures. Once identified, I abstract this language down to its most basic visual components, and then recombine them into complex, multi-layered pieces that aims to tap into archetypal visual and aesthetic language.